Hood-forming rain cloak



Feb. 14, 1956 L. E. MOSS HOOD-FORMING RAIN CLOAK Filed May 20, 1953 INVENTOR.

LOIS E. M 0 SS 61% ATTOR NEY United States Patent HOOD-FORMING RAIN CLOAK Lois E. Moss, Detroit, Mich.

Application May 20, 1953, Serial No. 356,225

2 Claims. (Cl. 2-84) This invention relates to hood-forming rain cloaks and methods of forming such cloaks and may be considered an improvement on the subject matter of United States Patent 2,667,641, issued February 2, 1954, under my former name, Lois M. Finnegan.

An object of the invention is to form a rain cloak and hood from a single sheet of material and to conform such hood in a simple, novel and inexpensive manner to the head of a person wearing the garment.

Another object is to form said sheet at its top with approximately triangular hood-forming upward projections jointly forming an approximately V-shaped notch bisected by the vertical median line of the sheet, such projections being similarly flexed out of the plane of the sheet to close said notch and establish proximity and substantial parallelism between the notch margins, and such margins being permanently interconnected to maintain such proximity.

Another object is to arcuately curve the margins of said notch that they will largely conform to the front-toback curvature of the head of a person wearing the garment, when said margins are joined and extend upon such head.

Another object is to form said sheet with downwardly divergent lateral edges and to extend a pair of tie members oppositely and integrally from the sheet between such edges and the aforementioned hood-forming projections.

These and various other objects are attained by the construction hereinafter described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 is an elevational view of a blank of sheet material shaped to form my improved hood-forming cloak.

Fig. 2 is a front view of the improved garment in use.

Fig. 3 is a corresponding side view.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the hood-forming portion of the garment.

In these views, the reference character 1 designates a sheet of quite thin waterproof plastic material, preferably transparent and of light weight. The lateral edges 2 of such sheet are downwardly divergent at an angle approximating one hundred degrees, and the bottom edge 3 is substantially arcuate, said lateral edges being preferably radial to the edge 3. At the top of said sheet there is formed a pair of like upward projections 4 approximately triangular in shape, and such projections jointly form a notch 5 of an approximate V shape and having its apex in the vertical median of the sheet. The margins 5a of said notch have a substantially arcuate curvature progressively increasing the divergency of such margins as they recede from each other. Said curvature is selected to substantially conform such margins to the medial front-to-back curvature of the head of a person wearing the garment. The projections 4 are similarly flexed out of the plane of the sheet 1 to establish the notch margins in parallelism and close mutual proximity, such margins thus assuming an approximately transverse relation to the main body of the sheet and shaping the projections 4 to a hood form. To maintain such form, the

2,734,195 Patented Feb. 14, 1956 margins 5a are permanently interconnected, as by an adhesive-coated length 6 of plastic tape. A pair of triangular tie members 7 extend oppositely laterally and integrally from the upper portion of the sheet 1 and may be knotted together at the front of the garment to maintain a lapped rain-excluding relation of the margins adjoining the edges 2. The tie members 7 are interposed between the edges 2 and projections 4 and it is preferred to join the relatively remote edges of said projections to the upper edges of the tie members in continuous curves 8 reentrant to the sheet 1.

In use of the described garment it is initially disposed against a wearers back, being manipulated by the tie members 7, the hood portion overlying the wearers head, including any hat or cap thereon. The curved edges 8 extend downwardly at each side of the head leaving only the wearers face exposed. The main or cloak portion of the garment is forwardly wrapped about the wearer, effecting a considerable lapping of the margins defining the edges 2, and the tie members are interconnected to hold the entire garment in place, the interconnection being beneath and adjacent to the wearers chin. The stresses applied in interconnecting the tie members draw the hood downwardly on the wearers head in addition to closing the garment at its front. The curvatures 8 extending from the roots of the tie members materially increase distribution of stresses set up by interconnection of the tie members.

Because of its one-piece construction, its use of quite inexpensive material and the elimination of all fastenings other than the ties 7 included in the described blank, the garment is produced at a cost low enough to warrant its discarding after one or a few uses. The garment may be folded to a highly compact form, suiting it to be carried in a handbag or pocket. Blanks such as are shown in Fig. 1 may be simultaneously cut in large quantities and formation of the blanks results in completed garments except for the step of interconnecting the margins 5a.

What I claim is:

1. A rain cloak comprising a sheet of waterproof material forming a body portion having downwardly divergent lateral edges, and an approximately arcuate bottom edge, and including a hood-forming portion consisting of apair of adjoined duplicate approximately triangular projections having a material upward divergency and such projections being subsequently similarly bent approximately transversely to the sheet to establish said margins in a substantially parallel adjoined relation, means interconnecting said margins and thus maintaining the specified relation of said projections to each other and to the sheet, and a pair of companion tie members oppositely and integrally extending from the sheet and interposed between said lateral edges and duplicate projections.

2. A rain cloak as set forth in claim 1, the relatively remote edges of said projections being joined to the tie members in continuous curves reentrant to the sheet to extend in use of the garment at opposite sides of the wearers face.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,519,557 Sharrock Dec. 16, 1924 2,129,454 Wilkie Sept. 6, 1938 2,444,761 Walston July 6, 1948 2,631,289 Herrington Mar. 17, 1953 2,639,431 Spear May 26, 1953 

